LM Otero / AP
Students wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 line up for classes Aug. 17, 2021, in Richardson, Texas. The Texas Education Association initially said school districts did not have to tell parents about COVID-positive cases for teachers or children. That guidance has since been reversed. Gov. Greg Abbott’s school mask ban is on hold while the issue plays out in courts.
Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021 | 2 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
Time for a test about the current COVID-19 outbreak and the Republican Party’s response to it. Please note that while the answers are true and the statistics presented here are accurate, the Sun couldn’t help but make a few editorial comments. With that, here’s the test.
Question 1: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem tweeted last week that she would “take every action available under the law to protect” the residents of her state from a certain threat. What was it?
A: COVID-19
B: A federal vaccination mandate
C: Jewish space lasers
Answer: B, despite COVID-19 cases skyrocketing 371% in South Dakota over the past two weeks. Which makes you wonder whether South Dakotans should develop their own version of C to protect themselves from their governor.
Question 2: When the school year started this year in Texas, public schools were not required to do which of the following?
A: Conduct contact tracing if a student contracts COVID-19
B: Let parents know if a student has tested positive
C: Teach science and health
Answer: A and B. And while the Texas Education Agency issued a follow-up order requiring schools to let parents know if a student has tested positive, you’ve got to think that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature would love to throw in C before Texas kids become enlightened about how these people threw them to the wolves.
Question 3: When a medical center in Abilene, Kan., filled up recently, a family practitioner had to find a critical care center elsewhere that would accept a patient of hers with COVID-19. How far away was the closest facility that would admit the patient?
A: 50 miles
B: 250 miles
C: 570 miles
D: When we last checked, the air ambulance was entering Canadian airspace.
Answer: C. With critical care units packed throughout Kansas and surrounding states — mostly with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients who have contracted the delta variant— the best option was in Wisconsin. “I had to cancel an entire afternoon of clinic (hours) and spent three-and-a-half hours on the phone calling hospitals further and further away, trying to find a bed for this patient,” Abilene Dr. Megan Brown told NPR. “I had a medical student who was helping me, and she’d called South Dakota. And they said, ‘We’re getting calls from as far away as Louisiana.’”
Question 4: Last week, one-third of all new COVID-19 infections in the U.S. occurred in two states — Florida and Texas. How much of the U.S. population do these states make up?
A: 33%
B: 15%
C: 50%
Answer: B. Combined, the population of the two states is a little over 50 million.
Question 5: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee recently signed an executive order allowing parents to opt their children out of mask mandates in public schools. Of that state’s COVID-19 cases, what percentage are among children?
A: Less than 5%
B: 12%
C: 36%
Answer: C. The pre-delta level was 10-15%.
Question 6: Of the 16 states with the highest daily reported cases per-capita, how many are led by Republican governors?
A: Eight
B: 14
C: 10
Answer: B. They are, in order of the highest per-capita cases, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Wyoming, Alaska, Oklahoma, Texas, Indiana and West Virginia. The only two led by Democratic governors are Kentucky (No. 6) and North Carolina (No. 13).
Question 7: South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster recently declared: “Mandating masks is not the answer. Personal responsibility is the answer, common sense is the answer. And we have an abundance of both in South Carolina.” What doesn’t South Carolina have an abundance of at the moment?
A: Nurses
B: Available hospital beds
C: Capacity to provide care to non-COVID patients
D: All of the above.
Answer: D. Top health care providers in the state held a virtual news conference on Thursday to warn that medical centers were at full capacity and were struggling to retain frontline workers. One tidbit: The state’s medical care system is 3,000 to 3,500 nurses short of what it needs, which one clinical officer called an unprecedented need.
Question 8: True or false: COVID-19 vaccinations remain free and readily available in Southern Nevada and across the country?
Answer: True.
